Marco Bezzecchi went through Q1 to take Aprilia's first pole position of the 2025 MotoGP season, as Marc Marquez crashed out of the pole fight.
It marked Aprilia's first pole at the Red Bull Ring, a track widely seen as not the best for the RS-GP historically, and also Bezzecchi's first since 2023.
Marquez had topped every MotoGP session of the weekend previously - he was quickest comfortably in the pre-qualifying practice on Saturday morning - and he headed up the order after the initial Q2 runs.
💥 @marcmarquez93 CRASHES
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 16, 2025
He's up and running already though 🤯#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/yXsMfxlj5T
But he hit the deck coming through the second part of the Turn 2 chicane when trying to retake provisional pole and, though he remounted his damaged Ducati and continued in the session, the performance was no longer there.
Fellow Ducati riders Alex Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia were well-positioned to capitalise, but Bezzecchi had tucked in behind Bagnaia on his lap and nailed the final sector to end up on a 1m28.060s, seeing off the younger Marquez by 0.016s.
His elder brother had to settle for fourth, slightly fortunate not to drop also behind Enea Bastianini, who was just 0.016s back, with rookie Fermin Aldeguer joining them on the second row.
Pedro Acosta had a hugely eventful Q2 on the factory KTM, placing fourth early on but then having to ride back through the service roads and the paddock as his RC16 cut out on him.
He did emerge for a second run in time and was on course to potentially take a front row spot, if not pole, when he had a big moment in the final corner, ending up seventh.
Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia), Joan Mir (Honda), Brad Binder (KTM) and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) made up the Q2 order.
Fernandez and Zarco compromised their Q2 with crashes, while Zarco had also had a tip-off in the practice that preceded qualifying.
Provisional Austrian GP grid
1 Bezzecchi 2 A Marquez 3 Bagnaia
4 M Marquez 5 Bastianini 6 Aldeguer
7 Acosta 8 Morbidelli 9 Fernandez
10 Mir 11 Binder 12 Zarco
13 Marini 14 Martini 15 Di Giannantonio
16 Quartararo 17 Rins 18 Oliveira
19 Ogura 20 Miller 21 Vinales
The fight for Q2 spots wasn't much of a fight in Q1, with Luca Marini - next-best behind Bastianini and Bezzecchi - over two tenths off.
The Honda rider settled for heading up the fifth row ahead of Aprilia's Jorge Martin and Ducati's sole Q1 representative Fabio Di Giannantonio, whose uninspiring patch of form continues.
The weekend marks the first time Fabio Quartararo - and thus Yamaha as a whole - is entirely absent from Q2 this season, with the 2021 champion only 16th as the lead M1 rider, three tenths away from advancing to Q2.
The only riders in reach for any of the Yamahas were Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura, who was slower than he had been on Friday, and Tech3 KTM's Maverick Vinales, who is struggling with pain and mobility in his injured shoulder and withdrew from the weekend after the session concluded.
